FARMERS PROTEST — MANIC MONDAY:http://politi.co/1O01qnU The thousand or more tractors will start to arrive in Brussels Sunday, so be prepared for traffic mayhem already on the weekend. If you’re passing through Parc Cinquantenaire, don’t be alarmed. It’s not a rogue Scout troop or a refugee camp you’ll see, but the tents of the protesting farmers. In the past farmers have: broken EU office windows with bricks, poured milk to rot in the sun on the street, covered the EU quarter in hay, and much more. So get your hard hats and your popcorn and enjoy the show kids. http://bit.ly/1FlFqN2

FARMERS VERSUS REFUGEES: One senior diplomat noted drily to Playbook, “When dairy prices fall they can organize an emergency summit in five days. For refugees it takes two weeks. And it’s the farmers that already have €60 billion in EU money a year in their pockets.”

SPANISH ELECTION EXPECTED DEC. 20: Spain will hold national elections in December, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced Thursday. He told Spanish radio station COPE, “Once the budget is approved … I will call elections.” http://politi.co/1INaohl

BREXIT — FARAGE TO LAUNCH GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING STRATEGY TODAY: I hear counter-campaigns from groups like the European Movement, which “plans to engage 100,000 activists across the country,” are also on the way.

BREXIT — DEAR MR. CAMERON, PLEASE COME TO STRASBOURG: I hear he wasn’t very happy about it, but Martin Schulz has agreed to invite the British prime minister to explain himself during a public debate on what it will take to keep the U.K. in the EU. Maïa de la Baume reports: http://politi.co/1OfgHiy. By the look of this tweet from Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform, Schulz isn’t the only MEP downplaying Brexit: “Debating with @EPInstitutional (Parliament Committee) today, I was struck that the MEPs didn’t seem interested in the impact of Brexit on the EU. They should be”: http://bit.ly/1N5Utkg

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ATTACK OF THE BRUSSELS MINIONS: They’re as mad as heck and they’re not going to take it anymore. Antoine Sander and Quentin Ariès report on how some Brussels interns are getting organized. “They are calling for clearer rules and more pay and, in some cases, lodging official complaints about the treatment of interns.” http://politi.co/1il57bI

G20 — FIN MINS AND CENTRAL BANK GOVERNORS MEETING IN TURKEY TODAY: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is keen to turn the meeting into a success and has asked member states to prepare investment strategies. In addition to Erdoğan’s homework, the IMF issued a note on Wednesday setting out tasks and risks that lie ahead. The current situation in China and its spillovers on the global economy are likely to top the discussion, but experts say investors shouldn’t pitch their hopes too high for concrete results, Reuters reports. http://reut.rs/1fXPSn7

DAVID VS. GOLIATH — FRENCH CAMPAIGN THREATENS BELGIAN AIRPORT: The potential merger of FedEx and TNT doesn’t sound like a hot-button issue, but it’s about to become one. FedEx was confident of EU approval — but the Commission is now taking a closer look (it does this in only 3 percent of proposed mergers). If it’s blocked anther American company will be furious. If it’s not, the Liège airport in Belgium is facing a matter of life (and jobs) or death. If FedEx shuts down TNT’s hub in Liège to make efficiencies from the proposed merger, the airport will lose the majority of its income. The French government on the other hand is so worried that FedEx might close its Paris hub after the merger I hear three ministers have been spotted begging FedEx to stay at the already crowded Charles de Gaulle airport. FedEx has also been investing heavily in Cologne/Bonn, Germany (the airport authority and Germany jointly also spent €140 million to accommodate them), and Germans are keen to protect that, too. Watch this space: Between now and December cargo aviation is about to get interesting.

MIGRATION — IT TAKES A THREE-YEAR-OLD: After the world reacted to the image of a Syrian boy washed ashore dead, many national leaders changed tack or intensified their views on Thursday. “He had a name: Aylan Kurdi. Urgent action required — A Europe-wide mobilisation is urgent,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Twitter, before France and Germany proposed “mandatory and permanent” redistribution of refugees so that the burden did not fall on the countries where they tend to arrive in Europe. http://politi.co/1ikG7Bn David Cameron softened his line and promised to live up to “moral responsibilities.” http://politi.co/1hEoc85 Poland, too, alongside Polish European Council President Donald Tusk’s call for compassion, cited the example of the Solidarity movement to move towards compromise (though not as far as accepting mandatory quotas). http://bit.ly/1JQIcz5

MIGRATION — EU ACTION ALSO: Meanwhile the Commission is working on a plan calling for 160,000 to be resettled (up from an older proposal for 40,000 which failed to win support earlier in the year) and the Luxembourg Presidency of the EU floated in Süddeutsche Zeitung an EU Refugee Agency that could apply continent-wide standards to asylum applications. http://bit.ly/1Uw3sMn

MIGRATION — WHAT’S NEXT: Words do not equal agreement, and we are not even done with the words yet. Juncker’s State of the Union speech Wednesday will feature refugees prominently, before a ministerial summit that will try to lock in place a new system. Meanwhile central European “Visegrad Group” (Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak) prime ministers will meet in Prague today to counter-attack against the German-French plan. They’ll be led into battle by Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, who says he’s doing nothing more than enforcing EU law when he blocked trains, shuts down stations and builds walls. http://bit.ly/1LOBUzy. In response V4Revue has published a call to action for the V4 to “show the kinder face of Visegrad.” http://bit.ly/1fYsV3l

MIGRATION — ORBÁN COWBOY: Though his government felt compelled months ago to announce it would build a wall along its southern border in order to keep out refugees entering from Serbia, the Hungarian PM yesterday blamed Germany for the inflow, and declaimed responsibility: “The problem is not a European problem, the problem is a German problem,” Orbán said at a joint appearance in the Parliament with European Parliament President Schulz, who is German. Later in the day, Orbán signaled a willingness to consider a refugee relocation plan, as long as it resulted in asylum-seekers leaving his country. Meanwhile the refugees themselves boarded a train they thought was sending them to Germany only to find it took them to a refugee processing camp in Hungary, reports Andrew Byrne for FT. POLITICO has more on Orbán’s Brussels tour. http://politi.co/1JBPFyy

MIGRATION — POLITICAL FOOTBALL: Guy Verhofstadt again called on the center-right EPP to throw out Orbán’s Fidesz party after his latest migration comments.

ESSENTIAL READ ON REFUGEES AND BROADER MIGRATION: Tim Parks for POLITICO: “They want the life we have. And we are surprised. For years we talk about ‘one world.’ We talk about universal human rights. We intervene everywhere to impose our ideology, causing apocalyptic disruption. We have the world wide net. Information must be free, speech must be free. Every human being must have access. Everything must be immediately available everywhere. We send our TV dramas around the globe, flaunting our freedoms. We involve the most far-flung peoples in our sports and entertainments. We buy their best athletes. Their richest men preen themselves in our football shirts. Their sponsorship pays for our fun, which we sell back to them by satellite. And we are surprised when the world turns up on our doorstep…” http://politi.co/1EEDLY7

** Nigel Farage headlines second Playbook Breakfast – September 30 – invitation-only event: Nigel Farage MEP, leader of the UK Independence Party and co-chair of the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group, will meet Ryan Heath for a rare one-on-one interview in Brussels on Brexit, migration and more. Join the conversation at @PlaybookBreakfast **

THREE TRILLION TREES ON EARTH — BUT THEY’RE DISAPPEARING FAST: Satellite imaging and ground instruments have demonstrated Earth has many more trees than scientists realized, but they may be disappearing quicker than anyone thought. That doesn’t inspire huge confidence in related predictions, but it seems that at the current rate of cutting and replanting the trees would be all but gone in 300 years. http://dpo.st/1JOuaOF

TECH — EUROPE FINALLY GETS A SILICON VALLEY … OF LOBBYISTS: Picking up a theme pursued by POLITICO earlier in the year, Tom Fairless of the Wall Street Journal has some great quotes here about a new wave of lobbying in Brussels. “Brussels is the most important place in the world from a tech policy standpoint,” said Luther Lowe, head of public policy at business-review website Yelp.” http://on.wsj.com/1Upmucm

SNP LEADING AND SCOTS WOULD VOTE FOR INDEPENDENCE: 53 percent would vote to leave the U.K., and 55 percent would vote the Scottish National Party back into power.http://bit.ly/1fWCFLi

MORE ON THE COST OF PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS: h/t Al Caon for pointing me to the previous work of Marco Zatterin, journalist at La Stampa, who was told by the Commission that one MEP’s enthusiasm for questions (228 from Mara Bizzotto in a single year) had cost taxpayers €340,000. That’s €1,500 per question. Which would bring the cost of 2015’s predicted record tally of 18,000 questions to around €27 million. Send me your examples of the worst PQs you’ve come across. rheath@politico.eu

SWEDEN — RUSSIAN AGGRESSION LEADS TO RE-THINK ON NEUTRALITY: Russian aggression is making Sweden rethink its 200-year-old posture of military neutrality. From Carol J. Williams for the Los Angeles Times http://lat.ms/1JQ4pJq

MEDIA — EURONEWS EXPANDS INTO TAIWAN: Broadcaster Euronews isreinforcing its position in Taiwan, having signed three new contracts in the country. The English-language version of Euronews has now been integrated by the digital operator Dafeng Cable, into IPTV offer Spider.net, and on mobile devices in Taiwan through Fain TV. h/t Gorkana

SPOTTED: Quite a few of the EU’s ambassadors, including David O’Sullivan, with shocked looks on their faces after running into Nigel Farage last night. They are in town for their annual get-together at the Commission’s Charlemagne building — opposite Farage’s favorite pub, The Old Hack. Also spotted there were Peter Power and Martin Terret.

IN TOWN: German Marshall FundPresident Karen Donfried, formerly of the Obama administration, is in town Monday for meetings and a roundtable at the GMF offices. Bruegel’s annual meeting focuses on information technology and innovation with Rob Atkinson and Andrus Ansip, Monday Sept. 7, at 10 a.m. at Les Brigittines. Details: http://bit.ly/1NPDeW9

BRUSSELS — TEETHING PROBLEMS WITH NEW BRUSSELS PEDESTRIAN ZONE: It’s a great idea but a less great execution and communication. The upshot: Some roads in a tight kilometer radius around Brussels city center are now blocked to cars. A hit with residents and tourists who picnic, play games and stroll without care; a nightmare for drivers confronting detail-less maps and unreadable electronic warning notices. It also turns out that car parks run by Interparking in the center are now emptying; occupancy has dropped 20 percent. Interparking thinks drivers don’t realize they can still reach the car parks. Maybe, but the one-way routing of cars also simply confuses many and they give up, according to several drivers I have spoken to. http://bit.ly/1LLAvKa

APPPOINTED:Alexia Bertrand is the new chief of staff of Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders.

DEPARTING: Philip Webster announced he’s leaving The Times after 43 years.

LAUNCHING: Al Jazeera has a major new program called UpFront premiering tonight, hosted by Mehdi Hassan. The first episode is Hassan in coversation with Edward Snowden. He’ll talk NSA, Hillary Clinton’s emails, Donald Trump and why he’s still in Russia. The program will air at 7:30 pm CET on Al Jazeera English and it will also be available to watch online at www.aljazeera.com/upfront.

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